A creative writing student practices her craft while struggling to keep a clean house.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Getting Started

Every single creative writing professor I've ever heard, seen, or read says the same thing: You need to write every day. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, but just the act of writing every day allows you to be open to the creative process. Well, this is me being open...I'm starting a blog. Sure, it's not great fiction, and I know that somehow Hemingway managed without one, but I'm giving it a try anyway.

This month in school I am taking the Advanced Fiction Tutorial with the amazing Leslie Pietrzyk. If you haven't read anything of hers, check out her novels A Year and a Day and Pears on a Willow Tree. She is a wonderful writer and an outstanding teacher. The best part of this class is the hour-long individual conferences we get to have with her. She gives great feedback and really gets you thinking. The second best part of the class? The homework. Last week's homework was to start a Beginnings Journal where you write the first paragraph of a story each day. It's a great way to get the creative juices flowing, and I highly recommend it.

Sadly, January Term only lasts, well, to the end of January. But this is it folks. This is my last spring semester, and then I'll be a college graduate. A few more months and I'll be starting the scary process of applying to grad school. MFA programs don't care about your good grades or your extra-curricular activities, so I'd better get writing some quality stuff to impress those admissions people!

So now my mission is to crank out some brilliant fiction and to try and get my tutoring work started. I figure my experience of working in the college writing center and years of English classes and writing workshops ought to be good for something.

While writing is a major part of my life, I am also a wife, an avid reader, a devoted cat owner, and active in church. With all these different things going on, I keep busy...so I thought I'd add to my list of responsibilities, by getting a dog. My husband is obssessed with Komondors, a Hungarian dog that is bred to guard sheep. You've seen them on the dog shows...a giant white dog that looks like a mop? We got word from our breeder this week that our dog (already named Sam) is no longer just a theoretical pup! Her gorgeous dog, Lily, is pregnant!! So we are very excited, but more about that in a later post. I've GOT to go do something productive like laundry or thinking about dinner.